Voices

12/07/07

Israel, Cheney and Bush – What Did They Know and When Did They Know It?

Ted Lang

The latest U.S. National Intelligence Estimate assessing Iran’s nuclear military capability was just released on Monday, December 3rd. The NIE clearly debunks the Cheney-Bush neocon regime’s neocon-job desperately trying to convince the American people and the world that a neo-Nazi invasion of Iran must immediately be put on the table.

Ray McGovern’s interpretation of this turnaround in events is amply expressed when he asserts: “For those who have doubts about miracles, a double one [has] occurred. An honest National Intelligence Estimate [NIE] on Iran’s nuclear program has been issued, and its ‘Key Judgments’ were made public.” Published on Antiwar.com on December 4th, and entitled “A Miracle: Honest Intel on Iran Nukes,” the staggering magnitude of this turn of events, although clearly celebrated by McGovern, is nevertheless underplayed by even him.

But his lead-in does indeed somewhat emphasize this blessed NIE: “I do not know how often Vice President Dick Cheney visited CIA headquarters during the gestation period, but I am told he voiced his displeasure as soon as he saw the first sonogram/draft very early this year and is so displeased with what issued that he has refused to be the godfather. This time Cheney and his neocon colleagues were unable to abort the process. And after delivery to the press, this child is going to be very hard to explain – the more so because it is legitimate.”

Most important in terms of meaningful focus is not only McGovern’s revelation of yet another Cheney-CIA arm twisting exercise employed previously which resulted in “faulty” intelligence so successfully employed to get US into the Iraqi quagmire, but it has now been repeated and thereby reduced to an embarrassingly failed second attempt reaffirming the first effort of total fraud and deliberate deception. Talk about going to the well once too often!

Tony Karon, writing for TIME magazine’s website and posted December 3rd entitled, “The Fallout from the Iran Nuclear Report,” and carried on Rense.com as well, observes: “The latest U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran, which expresses the consensus of the 16 branches of the intelligence community, is sharply at odds with most of the candidates’ (and the White House’s) notion that Iran is rushing to build nuclear weapons, and even contradicts a 2005 NIE finding that Iran was working inexorably toward developing a bomb.”

The information provided by McGovern citing yet another attempt by Cheney to involve US in yet another unjust, unnecessary and unconstitutional war is a monumental revelation in and of itself; but much more enlightening is the fact he points out that Cheney was aware of this impending NIE “very early this year.” What this implies is that Cheney knew this adverse, truthful and factual intelligence was being gathered and established, yet we are to believe the other members of the Cheney-Bush regime didn’t. Question: Did they or didn’t they know of this impending NIE so opposed to the administration’s foreign policy direction? It is more than likely that ALL in the administration knew about this coming NIE! Either they intended to squash and spike the report via the help of the MSM, or they figured Cheney’s arm twisting would succeed in the same manner as it did with Iraq.

Here’s McGovern’s observation: “My guess is that the Pentagon, and especially Adm. William Fallon, commander of our forces in the Middle East, succeeded in persuading [Director of National Intelligence] McConnell to go public. Several months ago, Fallon was reliably reported to have said, ‘We are not going to do Iran on my watch.’”

McGovern also points out that many US senior military officers have been “strongly opposed” to a war with Iran. How come Senator Hillary Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee didn’t know about this? How come Senator Joe Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, didn’t know about this? How come Senator Christopher Dodd, a senior member of Biden’s Foreign Relations Committee didn’t know this? How come Senator Barack Obama, also a member of Biden’s committee, didn’t know this? How come Senator John “Madman” McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, didn’t know this?

Insofar as Hillary is concerned, hasn’t she visited Israel more than any member of Congress? And hasn’t Israeli intelligence been touted as so much more efficient than our own intelligence by our own American officials? How come Israel didn’t know about these impending findings by “a consensus of 16 US intelligence agencies” being mulled over by them for almost the entire year of 2007? How could Hillary and her Israeli handlers have been so blind sighted?

And if this Cheney-Bush and Intelligence conflict, obviously morphing from early this year and culminating in Admiral Fallon and senior military leaders’ strong opposition to an attack on Iran to preclude the possible risk of launching a full scale World War III to include Russia, China and Pakistan was brewing for most of this year, why didn’t our elected Beltway representatives and senators pass this vital information on to the American people via NBC’s “Meet the Press,” or ABC’s “This Week,” or CBS’ “Face the Nation?” Where was the “American” press on this? Where was the mainstream media, the MSM on this?

The answer is simple. Our government and its partner in crime, the MSM, cooperate and work against the interests of the American people. Our government, in all its branches and so-called representative bodies, ignores the will and wishes of the people. And as I have written in so many previous efforts, all it takes is for one high-level government official to tell it like it is and rein in the Cheney-Bush crime machine. Such a high-level government official has the ability TO MAKE THE NEWS, news and current events the MSM cannot sweep under the rug. Such an American patriot is Admiral William J. Fallon, Commander, U.S. Central Command [CENTCOM].

Fallon’s leadership and integrity precluded Cheney-Bush from launching World War III via an invasion of Iran. Other dedicated and Constitution-loyal military leaders joined Fallon, and now, courage and integrity has been restored to our intelligence services. They will no linger “fit intelligence around policy,” as was articulated by Tony Blair’s government in the Downing Street memo suppressed by The New York Times and network and cable TV “news.”

McGovern quotes the main points established by the latest NIE:

We judge that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program…

We assess with moderate confidence Tehran has not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007.

We do not have sufficient intelligence to judge confidently whether Tehran is willing to maintain the halt of its nuclear weapons program indefinitely…

We judge with moderate confidence Iran probably would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium sometime during the 2010-2015 time frame.

We judge with high confidence that Iran will not be technically capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 2015.

Considering these points, and the fact that these have been mulled over for almost an entire year, what precisely was the urgency on the part of the Cheney-Bush regime to attack Iran from the air with nuclear weapons? If one were to recall the hand wringing and screams of those most concerned about Iran’s impending huge and deployable nuclear arsenal, the chief source has been Israel and its lobby, AIPAC. And confirming and reacting to Israel’s terror would be Dicktator Cheney, Amerika’s true totalitarian ruler. And his lead would place Bush, Bolton and Negroponte right in line behind him.

But if Israel’s intelligence is so astute, and so superior to ours, why were they so terrified of a non-existent threat? The answer is obvious: Iran is NOT a threat to US. It stands instead in the way of Israel’s annexing the entire Middle East and having the US taxpayer spend trillions to construct oil pipelines through Iran and Iraq that can be controlled by Israel. In this way, Zionism will control the world’s richest oil supplies.

With this impending NIE “on the table,” is it hard to imagine that Nancy Pelosi was unaware of it and Israel’s intentions? And who did she support? Did she support the American people, the taxpayer, and the American military, or did she support Israel, Cheney and Bush? And if Pelosi, by some astronomical stretch, can be assumed to not know of this impending and damaging NIE, can the same thing be said of Bush?

Think of Bush uttering, “We [French President Nicolas Sarkozy] talked about Iran and the desire to work jointly to convince the Iranian regime to give up their nuclear weapons ambitions, for the sake of peace,” as quoted by Associated Press White House Correspondent, Terence Hunt in his December 3rd piece entitled, “Like Iraq, US intel on Iran faulty.” Hunt continues: “More ominously, Bush told a news conference Oct. 17, ‘I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.’”

Hunt then cites former National Intelligence Director John Negroponte’s testimony to Congress in January: “‘Our assessment is that Tehran is determined to develop nuclear weapons,’” Think of the total absurdity of that more than ridiculous statement. How the hell would Negroponte, or for that matter ANYONE, be able to determine any other human beings intentions? And how do intentions, not acted out, prove wrongdoing or harm actually done? Shortly after that idiotic line of “reasoning,” the draft of the current NIE began to take shape.

Hunt quotes Cheney-Bush’s hired naysayer, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, who “said the president made comments like those ‘because he was describing the threat as the intelligence community itself had been describing the threat both publicly and in their briefings to him.’” Hunt continues: “Intelligence officials advised Bush several months ago that they were reevaluating their assessments about Iran. They came to the White House last Wednesday and briefed him on their new findings.” Really?! They told Bush “several months ago” that their assessments of Iran’s nuclear capability were wrong, but only informed him officially “last Wednesday?” Well I guess in the view of Hunt and his AP, this lets Bush off the hook for the comments he made during the recent Sarkozy visit.

Hunt and the AP continue to apologize for Bush and cover his tail: “The intelligence flip-flop recalled the embarrassing reversal that Bush was forced to make on whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The conviction that Saddam Hussein had such weapons was one of the factors behind Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. It has since been determined that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.” Can you believe this crap exemplifying Benjamin Franklin’s American journalism???

Hunt needs to be instructed as to the fierce opposition that UN inspectors Hans Blix and Scott Ritter expressed before the Bush War against the innocent Iraqi people. Hunt needs training in the area covered by former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill who offered that Bush had targeted Saddam and Iran from the very first day he took office. Hunt needs to read and understand the Downing Street Memo and what it means to make intelligence fit policy. And if he demonstrates a grasp of theses simple examples of true fact and events, we just might be able to explain to him that burning white kerosene cannot melt structural steel in skyscrapers.

This evaluation and commentary by Hunt and the Associated Press is pure poppycock and sheer nonsense! It is their desperate attempt to cover for Cheney-Bush to misinform and disinform readers as to the precise nature of the American criminal regime’s concocted and deliberately fraudulent intelligence as a pretext for an illegal, unjust, unwarranted and unconstitutional invasion of another nation. The intelligence used by Cheney-Bush was fraudulent and manufactured, not accidental, honest and “faulty.”

And you can just bet that Bush will ignore this truthful, factual intelligence assessment with the same level of energy with which he embraced the intelligence and policy lies of weapons of mass destruction, regime change, bringing democracy, and allowing Iraqis to govern themselves.

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